What to Do When You Feel Stuck in Life | How to Stop Feeling Stuck in Life

If you’re looking for what to do when you feel stuck in life – you’re in the right place.

In preparation for this article, I googled “how many people feel stuck in their lives?” – expecting the answer to be somewhere around 20%. Still high for a global number, and not exactly encouraging, but I certainly didn’t expect to find that not 20, not 30, but 76% of people feel stuck in their personal lives.

We are struggling. And as a generation brought up to expect a world that’s different than what it is, it shouldn’t be that surprising.

I have felt stuck and disoriented more times than I could possibly count. I have reset, restarted, and removed habits, routines, and ideas from my life over and over and over again.

This definitely isn’t what I’m supposed to tell you in this article – but there isn’t a magic fix. Feeling stuck comes from a lack of purpose. A lack of direction. And while all of these tips are extremely helpful in getting that back, it’s ultimately up to you to create, pursue, and maintain that focus in life. 

The good news: it gets easier and easier the more you practice it. 

You may feel stuck in life right now, and you’re certainly not alone. But this doesn’t have to be your new normal. Let’s get our lives together, together, and figure out a new way to make the everyday meaningful.

How to Feel Unstuck in Life

Do a Time Audit

For the next 7 days, keep a record of what you do with your time. This could be a note on your phone that you fill out as you go, at the end of the day, or you could do this vlog-style and actually film your life. Don’t try to curate this or be on your best behaviour. Just live your life as you normally would. At the end of the 7 days, sit down and watch, review, and reflect on what your life looked like and how you used your time this week. Time audits can be incredibly revealing – they confront us with the truth of who we are and not just who we think we are. 

Odds are, there’s an area or two where you may be investing your time and energy in ways that aren’t exactly aligned with your values. Maybe this is doom scrolling, lack of hobbies, or too much time with the wrong people. Whatever it is, ask yourself if these habits are causing or contributing to your feeling of “stuck.” What can you change to stop feeling stuck in life? How can you use these findings to change your life next week?

Try a New Routine 

One of my favourite ways to shake things up when I feel stuck in life or kind of trapped in a rut is trying a new routine. I did this last year by waking up at 5am for a week and it worked so well. Other ideas could be going to the gym at a different time, creating a wind-down routine in your evenings, or scheduling a self-care night every week. Head to YouTube for some inspo if you’re in need of more ideas!

You don’t need to hold yourself to this routine. The idea isn’t to commit right off the bat, but rather to explore and experience a different daily rhythm to just get yourself out of this funk. It’s a great way to clear your head and figure out what exactly is bothering you, if anything, as well as experiment with something that you may end up loving.  

Set Goals

This may sound obvious to some – but don’t underestimate the power of goal setting and what it can do for you, especially when you feel stuck. I would consider myself a highly driven person and a very hard worker, but when I don’t have a clear goal or set of goals to work towards, I lose all my motivation and much of my drive. Clearly defined goals, particularly ones that I know will be hard to hit, kick my butt into gear and make me want to work. Of course life is a balance – but having a sense of direction and purpose is really key for me, and it’s one of the best ways I know to get unstuck. 

Check out this post on 100 goal ideas for some inspiration!

Make a Physical Change

“If you want to change your life, first change your hair.” – me in January 2022

I’m partly kidding, but also not. On the several occasions that I’ve made drastic hair changes, it went hand-in-hand with changing my life in ways that weren’t coincidental. There’s a lot of psychology to support the idea that changes in your environment make it easier to form new pathways in your brain and create new habits. I theorized that changing my hair could do the same, and IT WORKS. 

If you don’t want to swap out your look, try moving around your furniture or finding some low-cost ways to decorate your space. If you’ve got a move or a job change coming up, even better. Even the mark of a new week (or month or year) gives you an extra boost of that “fresh start” feeling that can make a world of difference in your sticking power. 

Change What You Consume

54% of Gen Z spends *at least* four hours on social media every day. There’s a larger conversation to be had around that – but if you’re not ready to delete the platforms (trust me, there’s ZERO judgment here), it’s worth being mindful of what you’re consuming at least and how it’s affecting you.

When you scroll, is your feed full of motivational, encouraging, uplifting content? Do you exit the app feeling better about your life, or inspired to healthy habits? I’ll be honest — for years, I followed a lot of people and consumed a lot of content that just made me feel angry or off. Whether I agreed or disagreed with what was being shared, I never felt BETTER, and almost always felt WORSE after consuming. I’m in the middle of a pretty hard social media reset at the moment, and asking a lot of questions about how to engage in a healthy way after years of unhealth and unhappiness. 

If you’re going to consume, hack it to your advantage. Look for accounts and people to follow that leave you with a sense of purpose and excitement for life. Push into things that challenge you in good ways, motivate you to do better, and click unfollow or mute on everything else.

Do a Life Reset

There are really two tiers to a life reset, if you ask me. You have your classic “weekend reset,” or “monthly reset” – and then you’ve got a hard reset. Stepping back from your life to implement drastic, lifestyle-altering shifts overnight (or over a short period of time). Both are good, healthy, and productive. But they serve different purposes.

If your feeling of stuck is more just feeling OFF for a day or two – try this (free printable) life reset checklist. It’ll help create motivation, clean up your space, and give you an opportunity to reflect and set some goals about what’s coming up in your life.

But if “stuck” for you is more of an overwhelming dread, or a constant feeling that you just can’t shake, it may be worth trying a hard reset. Finding some big ways to change things up. The details of this have to be up to you – because no one else knows what it is you most need or want out of life.

If you’re feeling stuck in life, you’re not alone. But you also don’t have to stay stuck. I’ve been there with you & so have many, many others. If you want to join a community of people getting un-stuck and committing to living healthier, productive, purpose-filled lives, you’re in the right spot. Join the email list here or check out my YouTube channel for more on how to live on purpose and find fulfillment in your everyday